New York Times gives readers a 36-hour visit to Jackson

When movie crews descended on Jackson in 2010 to film “The Help,” based on Kathryn Stockett’s novel about the city’s maids in the 1960s, they transformed the streets of its trendiest neighborhood into a retro backdrop. Given locals’ loyalty to mom-and-pop stores like Brent’s Drugs, where you can still sit at the counter and order a chocolate malt, it didn’t take much to pull off cinematic time travel, the New York times writes as part of its series of 36-hour stops in cities and towns around the country.

This year, Jackson will recall one of its most difficult moments — June 12, 1963, when the civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot in his driveway by a white supremacist. Events this June, including a civil rights city tour, film festival and gala, will celebrate Mr. Evers’s life.

A lot has changed here in 50 years, though Jackson’s population of fewer than 200,000 still gives it the familiarity of a big country town.